Packaging device for butter patties



L. PETERS PACKAGING DEVICE FOR BUTTER PATTIES Aug. 20, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 21, 1965 FIG! Wm/W

FIG?) ms R Wm mE P O E L 1968 L. PETERS PACKAGING DEVICE FOR BUTTER PATTIES 5 Sheets$heet 2 Filed June 21, 1965 IN VENTOR. L E O P ET E R S Aug. 20, 1968 1.. PETERS 3,398,000

PACKAGING DEVICE FOR BUTTER PATTIES Filed June 21, 1965 3 SheetsSheet I5 INVENTOR:

LEO PETERS FIG. 17 BY United States Patent "ice 3,398,000 PACKAGING DEVICE FOR BUTTER PA'ITIES Leo Peters, 750 Plymouth Road SE., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49506 Filed June 21, 1965, Ser. No. 465,410 2 Claims. (Cl. 99-179) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A generally rectangular solid, hollow container openable along one side to selectively remove one of a plurality of butter pat-carrying trays, each tray having portions along two opposite sides formed into guide rails to serve as sliding surfaces as well as protecting the butter pats from being crushed by trays thereabove.

History of invention It is a general object of this invention to provide novel packaging for butter patties, particularly those patties which are not equipped with chipsindividual serving trays or plates. An arrangement for packing the chipequipped patties can be seen in my copending application, Ser. No. 329,000, filed Dec. 9, 1963, now abandoned.

A primary objective of this invention is to provide a tray-like structure that will carry embossed-surfaced butter pats un-marred and intact through the channels of distribution; to protect the embosed surfaces against any weights or contacts that would mutilate or destroy them, and do this in a manner that is simple and low-cost at point of packing and quick and easy for patty dispensing at point of restaurant use.

The invention is also advantageous in providing a novel structure to facilitate dispensing of embossed butter patties as in restaurants. In this connection, it enables a restaurateur to avoid the difiiculties encountered with ice refrigeration characteristic of the prior art which resulted in speckled, unsightly butter patties as well as those which were often over-refrigerated to the point of being too hard to spread.

Other objects and advantages of the invention may be seen in the details of construction and operation set down in this specification.

The invention is described in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a packaging container constructed according to the teachings of this invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view (in fragmentary form) taken along the sight line 22 applied to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional view along the line 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of one tray or panel of the plurality seen in FIG. 1 and wherein a waitress is in the process of removing one of the butter patties;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged elevational view of a blank used to develop supplemental support within the outer container of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is the support developed from the blank of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is an elevational view of a blank employed to develop the tray or panel-like drawer of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the blank of FIG. 7 and prior to any manipulative operation thereon;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view (like FIG. 8) but wherein the parts are in a subsequent stage of manipulation;

FIG. 10 is a view similar to FIGS. 8 and 9, but showing the portion of the blank in a further stage of construction;

3,398,000 Patented Aug. 20, 1968 FIG. 11 is an elevational view of a modified form of blank employed in the practice of the invention to develop a tray-like drawer for supporting a plurality of butter patties;

FIG. 12 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the blank of FIG. 11;

FIGS. 13, 14 and 15 are fragmentary perspective views showing a sequence of operations on the blank of FIG. 12 to develop an upstanding, latched and locked rib;

FIG. 16 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view taken along the line 1616 of FIG. 15; and

FIG. 17 is a view similar to FIG. 16, but showing the rib portion in ultimately latched condition, i.e., a condition subsequent to that illustrated in FIG. 16.

In the illustration given and with particular reference to FIG. 1, the numeral 20 designates generally a packing container or outer envelope for a plurality of butter pats. An individual pat is designated P and can be seen supported on a fork F in FIG. 4. Each of the pats is surface decorated with an upstanding pattern, i.e., an embossing, to provide essentially a base-relief surface.

The container 20 is seen to be generally a rectangular solid and is relatively elongated providing an end which is opened by virtue of pivoting flaps as at 22, 23, 24 and 25 to permit the selective withdrawal of a tray 26. The tray 26 is also seen in FIG. 4 and is seen to support a plurality of patties P.

In FIG. 2, the tray 26 is seen to be partially removed from the container 20 with the uppermost tray 26 being covered by a sheet 27. In the case of the other trays as at 26' in FIGS. 2 and 3, the tray thereabove (as at 26) serves as the protective cover.

One tray is supported above its next lower neighbor by virtue of a unique rib construction as at 28 in FIG. 3. For this purpose, I provide each tray with a pair of longitudinally extending ribs along a pair of opposite edges of the generally rectangular tray or panel. The height of the rib 28 is sized such as to have the ribs 28 protrude slightly above the uppermost portions of each patty P, so that the same are protected by the tray above against surface disfigurement. Further, I find it advantageous to provide the ribs 28 with apex tops as at 29 (see FIG. 3), so that sliding of one tray relative to the adjacent tray occurs along an essentially line type bearing.

In FIG. 7, the numeral 30 designates generally a blank which is seen to be essentially rectangular in plan. Along two opposite edges as at 31 and 32, the blank 30 ultimately will be folded to provide rib 28see FIG. 10. For this purpose, the blank 30 is equipped wtih spacedapart score-lines or lines of weakness as at 33 and 34 relative to the edge 31, and 35 and 36 relative to the edge 32. The lines 35 and 36 can be seen in larger form in FIG. 8, wherein a corner portion of the blank is seen in enlarged form. In the process of developing the rib 28, the blank is folded on itself along the lines 35 and 36.

In FIG. 9, it is seen that the edge portion 37 (the portion defined between the edge 32 and the line of weakness 36) is folded over the intermediate portion 38 so as to c0r r 1e in contact with the main body 39 of the panel as illustrated in FIG. 10, where the edge 32 is seen to contact the main body 39 of the blank 30. To lock the rib 28 in place, I provide a plurality of flaps as at 40 (see FIG. 9). Each flap 40 is developed by a generally C-shaped cut as at 41 and a line of weakness 42the line of weakness 42 and the cut 41 defining together a generally trapezoidal shape. During the process of overfolding the portions 37 and 38, I cause the flap 40 to be pivoted upwardly from the plane of the blank 30, so that the portion 37 can be inserted under the flap 40 as seen in FIG. 10. This insures that the ribs 28 are securely locked in place by the interplay of the flaps 40 with the portion 37 (particularly with its edge 32) when pressure is exerted from overhead stacked traps.

Along the two remaining opposite edges as at 43 and 44, I provide projections as at 45 and 46 which can be employed as gates or handles when the trays 26 developed from the blanks 30 are positioned within the container 20. The projections 45 and 46 can be pivoted outwardly to provide convenient finger gripping handles for the selective removal of a given tray 26.

In the practice of the invention, I find it advantageous to use paperboard of the order of 0.01-0.03" in thickness which, with the rib construction just described, makes it possible to package eight to sixteen ounces of embossed butter per layer and with fifteen to thirty layers in the container 20. In FIG. 4, for example, I show the tray 26 supporting 40 embossed pats, Weighing twelve ounces. This can be developed in a construction having an area of 9 /2" x 7" and where 15 trays 26 are used (within a height of 10 /2"), 600 pats are provided in an an advan tageously compact form. This advantage accrues not only for the sake of storage-which requires refrigeration, but also for shipment and even dispensing. It will be appreciated that the container 20 may be quickly removed from a refrigerator and a tray either partially or fully removed from the container 20 for service in a restaurant and without the need for putting the patties into bowls of chipped ice, which in addition to rendering the patties unsightly because of water speckling, also is liable to destroy the fine surface ornamentation.

As a material of construction, I use paperboard preferably for the blanks 30 satisfactorily coated so as to make the same substantially impervious to water penetrationas by waxing, polyethylene coating, etc. Thus, there is no tendency of the tray-forming material to leech water from the butter patties. Also, the substantial resistance of trays 26 to water pick-up causes them to retain their original strength.

Where the extent of the trays 26 is such as to permit a slight bowing to develop in the central portion of the trays 26, I make use of a central column or tower support as at 47 in FIGS. 3 and 4. The column 47 can be seen in perspective view in FIG. 6 and is developed by folding a blank 48 (see FIG. on itself along a series of score lines or lines of weakness as at 49, 50, 51. In some instances, the blank 48 may be somewhat longer to include the portion 52 and the portion 52 employed to overlap the portion 49a (see the lefthand side of FIG. 5) and the portions 52 and 49a either glued, stapled, or otherwise secured together. I provide the tower-like column support 47 of a height substantially the same as the height of the ribs 28 so as to maintain adjacent trays 26, 26', etc., in spaced-apart relation so as to provide a discrete distance between the top of a patty and the next tray.

A modified version of the tray-forming blank can be seen in the views on the third sheet of drawings, i.e., FIGS. 11-17. There, a blank 130 is seen to be equipped with the fold lines 136 and 135 (see FIG. 12) relative to one edge 132. Additionally, the main body of the blank 139 is equipped with the C-shaped cuts developing the locking flaps 140. In this modification of the blank, the edge adjacent portion 137 (see FIG. 13) is equipped with an H-shaped cut as at 153 and the flap 140 is equipped with a C-shaped cut as at 154. When the portion 137 is folded along the line 136 (which ultimately develops the knife-edge type of bearing surface), and the portion 137 is inserted under the flap 140, an advantageous latching of the locking means 140 is achieved through the sequence of operation depicted schematically in FIGS. 15-17. In FIG. 15, an operator is seen in the process of defleeting the tab 156 resulting from the C-shaped cut 154 against the tabs 157 and 158 of the H-shaped cut 153. As illustrated in FIGS. 16 and 17, the tab 156 ultimately snaps past the tab 158 (after the same has been moved to the position designated 158') to assume a permanently latched orientation such as that seen in FIG. 17.

In some instances, it may be advantageous to provide the rib 28 of a cross-sectional tape other than the isosceles triangular shaped picture, i.e., other polygonal crosssectional shapes. Further, the ribs may depart from a polyangular cross-section to a round cross-section and may be attached to the paperboard sheet by glueing, stapling, etc., as contrasted to being developed therefrom by the folding procedure just described. The folding procedure, however, does yield a simplified construction, maximum weight bearing ability from a minimum amount of board and rapid means for fabrication.

While in the foregoing specification, the invention has been set forth in detail for the purpose of explanation, many variations in the details herein given may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. A butter patties package comprising a plurality of trays arranged in superposed relation, each tray being generally rectangular to provide a pair of generally parallel opposite edges, a rib upstanding from each tray along each of said opposite edges to support the tray thereabove, a plurality of butter patties resting on each tray with said ribs having a vertical height greater than said patties, said trays being constructed of substantially moisture impervious material, and an enclosure for said trays and patties defining a generally rectangular solid shipping container, said enclosure being adapted to be opened at one end thereof to expose one end of each of said trays whereby a tray may be partially extracted from said enclosure by sliding the same on the ribs 0f the tray below for selective removal of butter patties therefrom, said enclosure thereafter being adapted to be reformed into a generally rectangular solid for refrigerated storage.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which a generally rectangular spacer is mounted on each tray between said ribs to provide additional support for the tray above.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,081,068 12/1913 Vance 229-34 2,120,470 6/ 1938 Patterson 22935 2,125,833 8/1938 Dowling 206-44 2,304,373 12/1942 Palmer 229-23 2,705,203 3/1955 Heidrich et al. 99179 2,765,113 10/1956 Williamson 22934 3,083,107 3/1963 Tindall 99-171 LOUIS MONACELL, Primary Examiner,

S. DAVIS, Assistant Examiner, 

